Bill Johnson - Living Without Options
Well, hello, hello, Bethel family! My goodness, it has just been so long—so long! Looking at empty chairs and an empty parking lot… we miss you so much. I was exposed to COVID a couple of weeks ago, so yesterday was my first day off quarantine. I self-quarantined, and it was never a punishment for me to have to stay home with my wife. It was actually quite glorious. But anyway, I was free to leave my property yesterday.
I have a confession to make: I went down to the grocery store and bought every carton of Haagen-Dazs pistachio ice cream that they had, which happened to be six. I bought all six of them and brought them home because that is the will of God for my life. Now, don’t send Manny, please! I haven’t… I’m just confessing. Yesterday was a day of victory and triumph as I drove from the grocery store to my house, opened one, and ate the entire thing. They’re small—very small! I had the whole thing yesterday, and I’m feeling quite happy—quite happy!
Thanks for joining us, Bethel family. We are constantly amazed as a team. We meet and review what’s happening, and we’re just trying our best. You know, honestly, we’re just trying our best in the most awkward time to lead well. Watching how you guys have been so incredibly generous and faithful in support and just the stuff you do—meeting in homes, so many of you are meeting in homes even right now! We just want to bless you and thank you. Your faithfulness has been outrageous! Our worship team did such an amazing job. I wish so much we could all crowd into the room together—the day is coming soon, but not yet. It is such a joy to stand here and worship Jesus. When in doubt, worship! It’s never a bad idea; I mean, it’s always a good idea to turn my affection toward the Lord and declare His greatness, His sovereign rule overall.
The song I’ve been singing probably the most in the last eight months has been «He Reigns Above It All.» My goodness, I just sing that over and over again, and it’s not like it’s a premeditated thing. It’s not like I’m searching for a good song for the season; it volcanically erupts, and then I recognize God is on this song. So, I’ve been singing that thing over and over again, and I encourage you to do the same. Grab your moment! I mean, you’d have to be, I don’t know, brain dead or have spent the last eight months on another planet to not realize that we’re in the most unique, interesting times of our lifetime, for sure.
As we look at history, there have been crazy times throughout history where the church faced incredible difficulties and challenges, where mankind faced horrible, horrible circumstances. So, we’re not the first generation. I don’t want to throw a pity party; we actually have it quite good by comparison to other times and seasons, but we do have our hands full, so to speak, as we face the dilemmas that are before us.
Here’s what I want to talk to you about today: the Lord allows a challenge to come our way. The challenge is to reveal need and invite us into breakthrough. Whenever the Lord brings a challenge—maybe it’s a financial thing; it could be a health issue like this pandemic—it could be any number of things. The Lord is exposing a need in me. If I turn to fear, He’s not shaming me. If I turn to insecurity or panic or whatever—it’s not shame; He’s just bringing to the surface where I’ve built wrong security. Insecurity is wrong security exposed. He brings it to the surface not to shame me, but to bring it out in the open so I can deal with it and move into divine solution—move into God’s answer.
We have some situations around us right now, not just as a nation, but really the nations of the world. I’ve been talking and texting with people from all over the world in just recent days, and the challenges our friends face around the world are really high. But I want to come to you encouraged today—encouraged because there’s not one problem that exists on the planet that Jesus doesn’t have an answer for right now. In His mind, He already has it well-prepared; the answers, the solutions are available.
I remind you that Jesus said, «Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.» The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is the absolute fulfillment of every single cry of the human heart. Every longing that we would have in life is fully satisfied. It’s temporarily satisfied by situations in this life, but is completely fulfilled in this realm called the kingdom of God. So when Jesus says, «Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,» He is announcing, He is challenging a generation of people to change their perspective on reality. Otherwise, you will always live under the influence of the inferior.
I have brought my world with me—the dominion of the Almighty God that brings things into order, that manifests the abundance of life, the peace of God, the salvation of the Lord in spirit, soul, and body. All of this that He brings to us is available as we turn from the inferior and embrace this thing called the kingdom of God. Today, I’m here as a messenger to remind you of things we’ve studied, things we’ve prayed, things we’ve done in years past. I’m going to ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Acts. We’re going to go to chapter four, and I’m going to read to you today portions of a story that has dramatically affected my life through the years.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw and recognized this particular passage and realized what the Lord was calling us to. In chapter 3, we have Peter and John come up to a gate; there’s a lame man there. Peter makes this statement. He says, «Silver and gold have I none.» The lame man was begging for alms. He says, «I don’t have any money, but I’m going to give you what I have.» Then he said, «In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!» Man, I love that story so much! I love it because Peter says, «I don’t have this, but I do have this! I’ve got a name! I’ve got a name to which every power must bow. I’ve got a name; it’s been entrusted to me! Every power must bend its knee in the confession that Jesus is Lord.»
So, he declares it over this guy. Many of you are familiar with the story—read it on your own, Acts chapter 3. He’s walking, leaping, praising God! He just received absolute transformation in his own personal life. When we come to chapter 4, we have, in verse 13, Peter and John now brought before the religious leaders. They are chastised, rebuked, punished, and imprisoned because of this name Jesus that they preach. It actually says in verse 12, «There is no other name under heaven by which someone must be saved.» We must be saved, and there’s no other way.
It’s critical that we hold that intention because we’re not working with multiple options; we’re working with one King, one Lord—the eternal Son of God, Jesus the Christ. But in verse 13, I just love this verse: «When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled, and they realized they had been with Jesus.» Spending time with Jesus more than compensates for any weakness or deficiency you have.
Having been with Jesus, you know there’s got to be stuff going on in our life where people can look at what you’re facing and look at your response and say, «They don’t have the training for that; they must have been with Jesus.» There’s something about walking with the person that more than compensates for every deficiency and weakness, and we’re invited into that right now. We’re invited into that because Jesus, in this season, is giving the church an opportunity to face the obstacle of opposition—face the obstacles of pandemics, health issues, etc.—in the power of the gospel.
I’m going to exhort you today that we must return to our roots in any way we have abandoned or laid aside as not being a priority. Just follow with me here; it says they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
In verse 18, it says they called them—the leaders called them—and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. Yeah, that’s hilarious! They commanded; they didn’t suggest—they commanded! These people of authority commanded, «You are to no longer speak in this name.» Now, this is interesting because Jesus, the food multiplier, didn’t defend anybody, but when you start demonstrating power and you start making the pronouncement that you must forsake all to follow Me, then suddenly that name is offensive—especially to people who think there are multiple ways to God. They rebuke and tell them to not preach in the name.
In verse 19, Peter and John answered and said to them, «Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.» Oh goodness, I just think that’s funny! I want to see the video clip of their faces: «Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.» And then here’s this verse: «We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.» Look at this verse again—some translations say, «We cannot help but speak that which we have seen and heard.» Can you help it if you cannot see it? Is it an option? Can you turn it on? Can you turn it off? Then maybe we need another glimpse. Something’s got to happen!
The greatest reality in the universe is the presence of the resurrected Christ. That reality—and to fill my heart and mind with all the inferior things and not with the power of His resurrection—gives me an option. I can choose to turn the message on and turn the message off; it becomes optional. If it’s optional, maybe I don’t see it. It’s not a shame thing; it’s an invitation. He says, «We cannot help but speak what we’ve seen and heard.» We are living without options! My invitation to you today is it’s time to sign up again for a lifestyle that has no options.
We were designed by the Lord for this hour. We’ve been prepared throughout our entire lifetime. I don’t care if you have a lifetime of shipwrecks or failings; it doesn’t matter what it is. Everything up to this point is a tool used by God to make you and me a righteous influence in the earth. It must be said by the people of God, «We cannot help but speak! We cannot help it! We cannot help but speak of the things we’ve seen and heard!» It is no longer an option! We are so immersed in what God has said and what He has done that it is no longer an option. I pray that God removes the options for us in this word today.
All right, we’re just warming up, getting ready for the part that I love so much that I want to read. They were released, and in verse 23, they were let go. They went to their friends and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard that—verse 24—they raised their voice to God with one accord. That phrase is repeated often in the book of Acts, especially their voices raised up in one accord. In other words, they were in absolute unity—saying the same things, praying the same things, declaring and confessing the same things.
It’s vital not that we say the same things; it’s vital that we hear what He’s saying. By hearing that, we all say the same things. In other words, it’s not a humanistic unity we’re looking for; it is the mind of Christ declared on the lips of the people of God. They came into that place of unity; they raised their voice with one accord and said, «Lord, You are God who made heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.»
Then he goes on to quote this scripture about the nations being enraged, which sounds very familiar. Now, I want you to come down to Peter’s prayer. Peter prays a prayer that is one of the most courageous prayers prayed in the Bible. I’m going to repeat a story that I’ve told you many times through the years, but let me read these verses first.
In verse 29, «Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your bond servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders be done through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.» Look at it again: «Lord, take note of the threats,» (New American Standard says) «and grant that Your bond servants could speak Your word with all boldness while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders be done through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.»
I love this story a lot! Why? Earlier, in verse 13, they recognized the incredible boldness on Peter and John. And yet when they were opposed, threatened, and told to shut down what they were doing, they prayed for greater boldness. They didn’t pray for fancier words; they didn’t pray for any of the stuff that we might have done sometimes. We become fearful of certain movements or groups of people, and we compromise our testimony to become more appealing. What is actually needed is a greater boldness—that the breath of God would breathe on and release His hand to do the impossible because He’s responding to a courageous people.
If ever we’ve needed to be courageous as a people—not offensive, not obnoxious—none of that junk; that’s all counterfeits! Absolute boldness for who Jesus is and for what He has said, what He has taught, what He has promised us. So here’s this story: At a time where they could have prayed, «God give us favor in the political world; give us favor with religious leaders,» instead they said, «God, turn up the heat! Our boldness got us into trouble. We were imprisoned and threatened because of our boldness, because of the miracle. So give us more of what caused us that problem!»
It’s a very rare way to pray. We generally try to appease those who—I believe we’re supposed to be wise, I believe we’re supposed to speak the mind of the Lord, I believe we’re supposed to love and serve—no brainer; that’s who we are. But there are times where we compromise our own faith in order to take a safe route that does not cause conflict. Here it is: «God, give us all boldness! You gave us some; we’ve seen Your name glorified as a result of the boldness, but we’re asking right now for the boldness that caused us such conflict—increase it!»
Years ago, I was told a story about a test pilot in the UK who was taking a new plane up to see how it handled. I don’t remember all the details, but he was taking a new plane up, and it didn’t have a lot of the shrouding and stuff inside the cockpit. When he got up to a certain elevation, as he was flying, he happened to notice that there was actually a rat on the plane chewing on a fuel line. As the story goes, this pilot feared he did not have time to land the plane, so he took it higher. He took it higher because he had oxygen; the rat did not. He took it up to an elevation where the rat could not survive.
Oftentimes, the church notices a rat on board and, in panic, tries to land the plane, sparing the rat. When, in reality, we need this prayer: «God, we got in trouble because of boldness. This time, give us all boldness!» Increase that which we need so desperately right now! We don’t need a compromised version of the gospel of power. We don’t need one that fits well into everybody’s opinions. What we need is the gospel of Jesus Christ to be on full display. That’s what we need right now!
So, do what you need to do in us so that we take the moment that You’ve given us, embrace it fully, and realize this problem is an invitation from God! It’s an invitation by God to become who we’re supposed to be—declaring what we’re supposed to declare, practicing what we’re supposed to practice. Here it is: they prayed that prayer; verse 31, «The place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.» Now, the multitude, verse 32, of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own. They had all things in common.
With great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Here’s the deal: Acts chapter 1 says you will receive power so that you may be witnesses. Let’s clarify something here: You don’t need power to tell somebody you’re born again. It helps, but you don’t need it. You don’t need power to give a sandwich to a hungry person—all those things are expected! Those are things we must do.
But power isn’t needed for those actions, but power is needed if you’re called upon to demonstrate the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Power—the lame man walks, he leaps, he praises God! What happened? The resurrection of Jesus was just put on display through our own cowardice at times, through our own weakness of faith, and through all kinds of things. We allow a world to live around us that is grasping at straws, looking for answers, looking for solutions, when the entire time they’ve never seen the blatant evidence that Jesus is raised from the dead. We have nothing without the resurrection—nothing!
So this story that begins in Acts chapter 1, power is needed to be witnesses. By the time you get to verse 22, they are looking for a replacement for Judas, who betrayed the Lord, and it says, «Beginning from the baptism of John to the day when he was taken up from us, one must become a witness of His resurrection.» This whole thing of being a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ certainly includes sharing our story. We see Paul doing that; he would return to his own story on the Damascus road and his conversion experience. It’s a beautiful thing for us to share!
But we must understand we have been called upon to illustrate, prove, and demonstrate Jesus is raised from the dead. When the Lord—I had a situation a number of years ago; I was in Dallas, Texas. I was doing a conference there with a dear friend, and I just remember two nights—I don’t remember how long I was there, but I remember two nights I was speaking at this particular conference. After the time in the word, we’d have time where we’re praying for the sick, we’re ministering to people; oftentimes, we’d get down front, and we’d have a line of people, and we just work and pray with people. Somehow, I got off to the side, and in two nights, I spent hours—hours—praying over five people.
They all had MS, and every one of them left in the same condition that they came in with. Oh man, that’s painful because you feel these people are coming to you—in this case, to me—for prayer, wanting to meet Jesus. Because see, this resurrected One never turned anyone down! This resurrected One accomplished everything necessary for a person to be healed. Those people came whatever distance they came; they heard I was going to be there, one of those speakers. They lined up, and I spent hours praying for five—not one was healed.
That’s the reality! When I pray, I come to the Lord and say, «God, they came to me wanting to meet You, and all they met was me, and neither of us are impressed!» You’ve got to do whatever You need to do in me so that the person that exhibits any measure of faith could come and could see the miracle touch of Jesus. People will often make comments about someone not being healed. Often people will say, «Do you believe that if they’re not healed, it’s because of their faith or weakness of faith?» Actually, I don’t believe that at all!
The Bible says it’s the prayer of faith that heals the sick, and if I’m the one doing the praying, then I’m supposed to be the one with the faith. It’s not a time for shame; it’s not a time for introspection; it’s a time to seek God! It’s time for someone to be able to look at me and realize he’s deficient in every area, but I can tell he’s been with Jesus because he doesn’t lack where he needs to have presence, where he needs to have power, where there needs to be the demonstration of the resurrection of Jesus. He does not lack!
I’ll bet he has spent time with Jesus! See, Jesus would address weakness of faith; we know that. He would do that to a man with a tormented son; He told him, «If you can believe, all things are possible for those who believe.» The dad is just desperate; he says, «I believe, but I also unbelieve too—I kind of believe. Help me in my unbelief!» It’s a verse that many of us have quoted in our moments of despair because we can identify with it so incredibly well: «I believe, but help me in my unbelief!»
Every time Jesus addressed small faith, no faith, or weak faith, every time He still provided the miracle. Every time! Not one time did He point to weakness of faith and withhold the miracle. Never! Instead, what He did is expose the weakness of their confidence in God, and He gave them a miracle to give them access to the greater faith He was talking to them about. At one point, Jesus said, «You won’t believe unless you see.» Many people have read that and have thought— in fact, I grew up years reading that thinking He was criticizing them.
He was exposing that they had to see to believe! What did He do in that moment? He provided a miracle! Why? Because He knew if they could see it, they could believe. Not displaying the resurrection of Jesus through miracles, through signs and through wonders is to withhold from people the opportunity to believe—the opportunity!
I remember one Sunday morning quite a few years ago, I was walking through this—before, quite a bit before the service was to start—and I remember right back over here, close to the back row, there was a family there, and there was a man who you could tell was homeless by his clothing, his smell, everything about him just let you know. This family had found him and brought him to church. People were starting to come in, and I went back just to introduce myself to him. Just welcoming him and just telling him how happy we were that he was there, I noticed he had a cast—a brace on his arm.
I said, «Hey, what happened?» He said, «I fell off a bridge.» He said, «I shattered my arm,» and he was in a lot of pain. It had been done—I didn’t ask him when—but you could tell that it had been very, very recent, and he was in tremendous pain. He just kind of babied that thing as he held it there. So, I just began to ask him questions, and he said, «Yeah, I fell 18 feet off a bridge; I shattered my wrist.» I said, «Would you mind if I prayed for that?»
He looked at me like, you know, «That’s a novel thing.» He didn’t come thinking or expecting that, and he looked down at the family that brought him, and they gave him kind of a thumbs up. So, we just prayed a very, very simple prayer. When I was through, he began to move his arm, and I wish I had a video of his countenance because everything that was wrong was now right! All the pain that was there was now gone. All the movement that he could not have without excruciating pain—really compromising this injury—he could do everything! He was so astonished; he looked at the people that brought him. They were thrilled. I was beside myself in joy!
It’s one of the great stories where God showed up and did something. When that happens, He gets all the glory. When it doesn’t happen, He doesn’t get the blame—He doesn’t get the blame, and neither does the person that I pray for. But in this case, he was healed. I went on and celebrated with him and went on to meet other people, and finally, the service started. At the end of the message, I wanted people to surrender to Jesus.
So, as we do, we always like to give occasion for people to commit their lives to Christ. Who do you think was the first person that day to surrender their life to Jesus? Of course, it was! Of course, the scripture says it’s His kindness that leads to repentance. To not be filled with the Spirit of God, to not be able to display the resurrection power of Jesus and confront those things that are impossible is to withhold from people a taste of the kindness of God—a taste of the goodness! A taste that actually gives them the courage to forsake this inferior life and follow after this one—the only one who is worthy to direct and lead my life—the resurrected Christ!
Here it is! Here it is! It’s the witness—He’s alive! It’s done in many ways, but never is it to be without the miracle. We live with the tension of, «We’ve had so many cases of COVID-19 in our city, in our own church.» We’ve been praying like crazy; we’re really looking for greater and greater breakthrough. We have many, many stories and testimonies—gobs and gobs of wonderful stories of great miracles. But what people seem to remember in this season right now is oftentimes what didn’t happen.
I want to look to you, Bethel family, and all of our guests that are watching; we’re thrilled you’d take the time just to watch this message with us. But Bethel family, I want to talk to you face to face for a moment. This is a moment where we do not become cowardly; we do not become apologetic; we do not create biblical excuses for the absence of what Jesus accomplished. This is where it’s time to spend time with Jesus!
It’s time to do something in some way—seeking His face, crying out to Him with His own word. This is what He declared: He declared that these signs would follow those who believe! He declared greater works than these would He do! He declared by His stripes He made a payment in full for the miracle that we need! Why does it happen? By the grace of God! Why doesn’t it happen? I’m clueless! And that’s when I get back before the Lord; I don’t create a religious excuse. I don’t create a religious excuse! I don’t deflect the blame, the accusation, the pointing of the finger. Exactly! They say, «You believe in miracles; why do you wear glasses?» I said, «Because I can see better with them.»
I better not go there because there’s more, but we’ll just leave that where it is. We are a people that have the privileged responsibility to come before the Lord and say, «Father, touch me again! This time, let me see so clearly that I can say I can’t help but talk about what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard!» It’s not just the message; I have seen the message in action, and I can’t be silent!
I cannot be silent! This is not the time for silence! It’s not the time for arrogance; it’s not the time for self-promotion—all the other junk that is the counterfeit of real boldness. It is the time for Bethel! This is your call; this is my call; this is who we are! I’m not saying no one else is— I’m just saying, «Listen, this is it! We all signed up for this. This is the moment we get before the Lord!»
The other day, I took five different prayer walks. We have a little piece of land, and I’m just walking and praying constantly, getting up in the morning, getting my communion supplies, going outside, and standing before the Lord. «Father, You said, 'By the stripes of Jesus, we were healed.' And here is this bread—this broken body—that testifies of the absolute surrender of Jesus on our behalf. I hold this before You: Jesus became broken that we could be whole. He became empty that we could be full. He was rejected so we could be accepted. He was despised so we could be celebrated. He bore afflictions so that we could be healed.»
«Father, I hold this testimony, this witness of the resurrected Christ before You. I say, 'Father God, heal our city! Heal our city! ' I know You’ve prayed it; I know you have. But I’m going to ask you today to do it with boldness! Stand, proclaim, declare that that which has been set up to bring destruction of families in our city, we say no to you! No to you in the name of the Lord Jesus! We pray right now that the resurrected presence and power of Jesus would be seen, realized, discovered by every single family in our region—every household!»
My goodness! It says of Asia that every person in all of Asia had heard the gospel in the book of Acts after this great revival in Acts 19—every single household had heard the gospel! I want that right now in my part of the world where I live, where you live. We want every single person to taste of the kindness, the goodness, the wonder, the beauty of King Jesus! He said, «Taste and see that the Lord is good.»
Taste is experience; see is perception. I want people to experience this kindness so they have a new way to see what our Father is! It may be that you’ve watched this entire talk time and you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. You would be one to say, «I’m one of those that I don’t have—I don’t know what it is to be forgiven of sin; I don’t know what it is to have a new nature; I don’t know what it is to be a part of the family of God.»
I’m not talking about church membership or any of that stuff; I’m talking about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what’s at stake, and you were born for such a time as this! But there’s no amount of human strength or talent that can get done what needs to be done today. It’s the yielded, surrendered life!
It’s the person like you watching right now that just says, «Jesus, I give You my entire life! Every mess I’ve ever created, everything I’ve ever been successful in, I give it all to You! And I ask You, please, forgive me! Forgive me of all my sin! Fill me with Your Holy Spirit! Help me to be able to illustrate and demonstrate Your kindness to the world around me!»
I pray this in Jesus' name! If you’ve done that, I would encourage you, you’re watching on YouTube or Bethel TV—just let these pastors online know, and they’ll talk with you personally and pray with you. There are some of you that are watching that just need a miracle in your body. We just declared that healing word. This pandemic is inferior to the name Jesus! It is inferior to the name Jesus! I declare the name Jesus through your household, where there’s been a horrible infection or somebody that has—I don’t know if it’s a growth or an abnormality in this part of the abdominal area—the Lord is healing you!
Is there somebody who has great pain in your hands? The verse that comes to mind today is «to bring before the Lord clean hands and a pure heart.» When I was thinking about those clean hands, I felt like He spoke to me in Isaiah 58, and He says, «Stop pointing the finger. Your hands will be clean when you no longer accuse—when you no longer point at this person, criticize that one.» I declare that healing word for you today in the name of the Lord Jesus!
God is restoring households! There’s somebody who has a 14-year-old daughter; you have been estranged from her—there’s been some major conflict. She’s a blonde-haired little girl—just a beautiful young lady—but there’s been great, great conflict. It’s like the spirit of deception has got into that relationship, and there’s been torment involved, and we just break that assignment today in the name of the Lord Jesus!
I want you to know something: I could stand here announcing things that God is doing for hours and never touch everything! I want you to know that we serve a wonderful, wonderful Father who has you in mind! He loves you beyond description, and He cares! You come to Him with your condition, your need, and say, «I give it to You! Please heal my body, restore my finances!» In fact, I pray for resurrection power in businesses in the next six months!
That we would see in our region of the world—and all those watching—a resurrection power of businesses in Jesus' name! I bless you! I wish I could see you and hug you, but at least I get a chance to talk to you. I just want you to know I love you so much. I’m so thankful—so thankful—that we get to be carriers of this gospel of the kingdom!